Live Hosting Dos and Donts

Hosting a live event gives your brand and company the opportunity to stick out from your competitors. In this way you may get a deeper and more meaningful brand-building effect on your consumers that is more effective than indirect and media-centered advertising efforts.

Yet, with numerous revolutionary events occurring all around the world, businesses and events professionals need to maximize their efforts to guarantee the event they stage will be engaging for their target market and deliver their target objectives.

The live event industry is booming, so much so that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the event industry will increase by 44% from 2010 to 2020, exceeding most growth predictions for different industries. Even so, there continues to be a lot at stake when arranging a live event. They are quite expensive to put on and necessitate a substantial amount of preparation – even if they only last a weekend.

Audio is the number one component when it comes to staging a successful live event. Regardless of what size, or kind of event, the top event companies know that you must always strive for good audio; differently, you’ll lose the interest and attention of your audience.

More often than not, microphones will be a part of the installation, so plan to check each and every one of them early enough that your music engineers have the time to deal with any problems that might arise, paying particular attention to wireless frequency interference.

Additionally, get in the habit of using new batteries for wireless microphones for each and every event. If you are using a webcast audio feed, make sure it is clean and audible.

If your event will include remote presenters, schedule a test round with all them, as most will not be using a high-tech set up and, instead will be using a basic headset microphone or even a phone connection.

Video

In the last couple of years, live video has shown itself to be the dominant form of marketing, and when used properly at events, increases audience participation. Live video at events provides brands and companies the opportunity to tap into this engaging tool, bringing you and your customers together.

Just like in a TED Chat movie, plan to have several camera angles to create a cinematic experience.

The power of video is elevated by the fact that you can stream your events to audiences around the world, enlarging the live audience and furthering the results of the event you are staging.

Visuals

Along with the power of audio, visuals add an extra element of the story you’re telling. The degree and intricacy of these visuals will vary based on your brand’s aesthetics and the nature of the eventnonetheless, in most cases, some kind of artwork should be used.

Motion backgrounds are a fantastic way of adding an extra dimension, as the subtle movement gently enhances everything else that’s occurring on stage. For a more intense visual experience, LED lighting leasing is the way to go.

Another idea is to incorporate your brand or company’s logo into the look of the event. Overall, you would like the space your event occupies to turn into an immersive environment.

Processing Fees

When selling tickets for your event, you may encounter ticket or credit card processing charges. Depending on the business, these can vary from 2.5-3.5% and may have an additional apartment per-ticket fee.

Make sure that you are building these extra charges into the purchase price, rather than adding them on in the end. Psychologically, customers prefer to see a slightly higher ticket price than have a load of additional fees added at the end.

Venue

Selecting a location and venue for your event is a matter which may take a good deal of brainstorming. First, take under consideration the niche your event falls below and what (if any) characteristics your venue should have for that niche.

Once you’ve selected a venue, do not solely concentrate on the positives, but also consider its limitations. Ask about power capabilities, if certain things will set off the smoke alarms, the weight capacity of the ceiling, etc. – go over all the tiny things that could potentially turn into big problems.

In the weeks and days leading up to the event, make certain that the core team members know their way around the site.

Wherever you choose to host your event, ensure that there are loads of charging stations. You want everybody to be tweeting your event #hashtag all day long!

Technicians

When dealing with product and service suppliers, the most important tip of all is to hire the ideal attitude. You want to ensure that the people you’re likely to be working with would be the creme de la creme of this industry.

Organizing and hosting these events can get somewhat messy and intensely stressful, which may only be made worse if the men and women who are responsible for your audio, lighting, stage and rigging have not been listening and can not remember what to do.

Don’t forget to be certain that you are rewarding your crew with good food!

Feedback

After your live event has wrapped up, be sure to ask attendees to offer you post-conference feedback. This is the key to ensuring that the next event runs more smoothly and is more impressive than the last one. If you don’t ask, then you may never know that the chairs were uncomfortable, that too many panels overlapped, or that the coffee machine was never complete.

Pro Tip: As you will probably need to sleep for three days after the event is finished, prep your post-event mails and surveys before the event even begins. Check that all the links are working and leave space for pictures which you can add from the event before you hit send.

By hosting a successful and engaging live event, potential clients can begin to develop a relationship with you, raising the odds of them buying from you in the future.